BEAUTIFUL place to raise a family. We will never m
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7/7/2008
Ten years ago my wife and I moved to Charlotte from a western chicago suburb and we loved charlotte, and thought it was a great place to live. We recently had two kids, and felt guilty for living so far away from the grandparents so we sold our home and moved back to midwest suburbs of Chicago and have been there for about a year now. WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE!! Ten years of southern hospitality had erased our memories of how unfriendly and rude the folks in northern Illinois are. Once you have experienced the friendly southern people in Charlotte and the surrounding areas, it is very hard to go back up north. Also, once you are used to lots of southern sunshine, it is really hard on your psyche to experience the endless cold gray days that the LONG midwestern winters dish out. So we asked ourselves, do we want our kids to grow in northern Illinois where rude stand-offish aggressive people are the norm and not the exception to the rule? Do we want our kids to be locked up indoors for six months of brutal winters? Do we want them to live in a place where only the rich kids get access to great public schools? Do we want our family to live cramped together in a tiny little house because that's all we can afford with the high home prices and property taxes up north? Do we sacrifice our kids quality of life so that they can live closer to relatives? NO! Our kids come first! Just like our grandparents before us who moved to America for a better life...we will do the same by moving south. If you are OK with the old school midwestern rustbelt cities overtaxing you and your family and giving you little in return...then by all means assume the role of victim and stay where you are at. But if you believe your role as a parent is to seek out the best life for your children that you can afford...then head south. If your relatives care about what's best for your kids they will support your decision....ours did :) We just purchased a new house in Charlotte and are moving back this July. Thank God! In summary, Charlotte is affordable, VERY family friendly, the people are unbelievably friendly and polite, and the surrounding nature... mountains and ocean are breathtaking. And hey, you can still swim in the ocean...not the case with Lake Michigan, it's too polluted.
Abhd | Roscoe, IL